title: Elevated estrogen receptor expression in hypothalamic preoptic area decreased by electroacupuncture in ovariectomized rats.
abstract: In the present study, effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) mRNA and protein expression in the hypothalamus of ovariectomized (OVX) rats were detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot analysis. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release and GnRH mRNA level in hypothalamic preoptic area (POA) were evaluated by push-pull perfusion and qRT-PCR. Our results showed that elevated mRNA and protein expression of ERα and ERβ in hypothalamus were restrained following EA treatment in OVX rats. EA treatment also inhibited GnRH release and GnRH mRNA levels in OVX rats. These results provide novel evidence that EA treatment down regulates the expression of hypothalamic estrogen receptors (ERs), thus restores the response of GnRH neurons to estrogen depression, and partially resets the negative feedback of estrogen to hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary axis (HPOA) in OVX rats, which may be a critical mechanism for EA on female reproductive disorders.
authors.affiliation: WHO Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine, Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Integrative Medicine and Neurobiology, State Key Lab of Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Shulan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Jihong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Boying
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011301:Preoptic Area / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D011960:Receptors, Estrogen